Man U's striker Wayne Rooney out for a month with gashed leg

Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney will miss England's World Cup qualifiers against Moldova and Ukraine next month after suffering a thigh injury so horrific it even had surgeons startled.

According to BBC Sport, Rooney was injured when he tried to block a free-kick and Fulham's Hugo Rodallega landed on his thigh.

The injury was sustained during Manchester United's 3-2 victory over Fulham, Saturday, The Daily Mail reports.

"Wayne is off to the hospital and it looks like he will be out for 4 weeks," Sir Alex Ferguson, manager of Manchester United said according to The Telegraph. "We have to take care of these things in terms of infection, but hopefully he will be okay. Rodallega followed through with his shot, and has obviously caught him, but it was an accident, of course. It looked like a really bad one, though."

According to the Daily Mail, surgeons could not believe how deep Rooney's gash was.

The 26-year old forward stayed at the hospital overnight.

In order to fill Rooney's void, Ferguson must rely on Robert Van Persie, one of the teams more recent acquisitions, BBC News reports.

This shouldn't be an issue as Ferguson seems rather impressed with Dutchman's performance so far.

Van Persie scored his very first goal for his new team at the first home game he played with them.

"It was a fantastic strike, no hesitation. a magnificent hit that set the place alight," Ferguson said of Van Persie's goal.

Meanwhile, Rolladega is not being blamed for Rooney's injury, The Daily Mail reports.